PHA removes 117 billboards violating new policy

211 out-door advertisers and more than 3,200 staff members and around 5,000 contract employees would lose out jobs.

LAHORE: The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has removed 117 billboards installed in violation of the new outdoor publicity board policy of 2009 across the areas falling under the city district government of Lahore (CDGL).

The removal drive was launched after Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on May 12 dismissed a petition filed by 23 advertisers seeking to stop the PHA from knocking down their billboards.

Talking to The Express Tribune, an office-bearer of the Punjab Outdoor Advertising Association (POAA) rejected the new policy as damaging for the advertising industry. He held that the legal fight was not yet over, “We will go to the apex court to seek justice.”

He argued that around 211 out-door advertisers and their more than 3,200 permanent staff members and around 5,000 contract employees would lose out jobs if the government carried on with the policy. He said that outdoor-advertising was the only sector paying up to Rs3 billion to the provincial government in taxes every year.

A PHA official said that the companies had already been issued red notices asking them to remove their billboards. The PHA, he said, took action on their failure to comply with the directives.

Abdul Jabbar Shaheen, the PHA director general, said that the PHA had stopped issuing no objection certificates (NOCs) for all sorts of advertisements. He said now that the billboards put up in violation of the new policy had been razed, fresh NOCs would be issued.

A PHA senior official said that ban on issuing NOCs came into force after some advertisers who had won auctions for 18 billboards refused to remove previous boards.

Under the outdoor publicity board policy of 2009, all kinds of advertisements in residential areas were banned. The policy also barred advertisement boards that were bigger than building structures.

“Minimum size for a billboard was set at 10/20 feet and maximum at 20/60 feet,” the official said.

He said that under the policy advertisements could only be put up at the roads declared commercial.

However the light emitting diodes (LEDs), he said, could not be installed on roads, “They could only be installed in commercial areas and marketplaces.”

He maintained that the new policy had been formulated to improve the city’s landscape and to strike a balance in its structure.

He stated that after the implementation of the new policy the PHA had brought down the number of billboards from 285 to 44 – from 57 to 7 on Gulberg’s Main Boulevard, from 54 to 13 on Jail Road, from 4 to 2 on Quershi Road, from 4 to 2 on Noorjahan Road, from 52 to 7 in Garden Town and from 17 to 11 on Ferozpur Road. The Mall has been declared a publicity-free zone, he said.

The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) made Rs35 million in revenue by auctioning billboard space at the 10 underpasses in the city.  These underpasses are situated in Dharampura, The Mall, Jail Road, near FC College, Ferozpur Road, Gulzar, PU’s New Campus, near Jinnah Hospital and Doctors Hospital and at the Niazi Interchange. The PHA official said that it was the first time the authority went into a public auction for billboards at the underpasses.

“The huge billboards erected in the city are a permanent threat to the citizens safety,” Mustafa Kamal, the former chairman of the Chief Minister’s Task Force on PHA, said. All major cities in the world were taking steps against billboards, he said. “They hinder smooth flow of traffic, cause pollution and ruin the overall image of the city,” Kamal added.

He referred to Delhi as the closest example where the high court had directed the authorities to remove all huge billboards.

Similarly, he said, the Brazilian government had removed around 18,000 billboards from one of its major cities. He added that authorities in Sydney, Los Angeles and London had also recently started removing huge billboards.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2010.